You know what sucks? When you´re sitting on the toilet and you shift and it flushes on you!! Gosh don´t you hate that. Anyways, that´s just what happened to me earlier this morning and I got all flustered and annoyed like usual and then I stopped and thought... WHOA it´s been a while since that happened! I realize I´ve been in 2 huge tourist trap cities for the past week and a half, but before that (and even at some points during that) we were really living rustic style with toilets that often lacked seats/flushers/toilet paper. I had almost masted the concept of flushing a toilet by dumping a big jug of water down it. So, the point is that it was almost comforting today when I felt that unexpected splash of toilet water rush under me as I was still peeing. But next time it happens it will once again become just plain old annoying.
Okay it´s 5:35 and I´ve been in the Lima airport since 8 AM (Jamie´s flight to Cuzco was earlier and I didn´t feel like paying separately to come to the airport). It´s pretty elegant, even for US standards. I was basking in the elegance of a Papa Johns, Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks earlier and then I overheard someone saying that there is an international departure tax of $30. What the HELL. That´s why the airport is so nice... because they´re raking in millions from innocent travelers. Outrageous.
I expected to be reallly bored today, but it hasn´t been so bad. People watching has been more entertaining than usually. There are a ton of gringos here because I think Lima tends to be much cheaper than other South American airports to fly into and out of. Earlier this morning around 11 AM I saw a group of about 10 American adults (in their 40s or 50s) throwing back a TON of Cusquenas (the national beer). I repeat, it was 11 AM, and these people were getting BUCK with the booze. When they got up from the table it took SEVERAL trips to dispose of all their empty bottles. Then they rushed off to the bathroom/their flight where I can only assume they were going to indulge in some of those mini bottles of cheap wine or hard liquor. Really living it up. That´s all from the Lima Airport. The air conditioning in this room is blasting and paying more than $2 an hour for internet is something I have never done, so time to wrap up. I fly out at 8:30 and get into Santiago around 1 AM where I have booked a luxurious hotel room with a delicious breakfast included for 4 nights. Don´t judge me... I never claimed to be a budget accomodation type girl.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Sky high in Lima.
Today was my second Latin American (or anywhere) parasailing adventure! A couple blocks from our hostal in Lima, right on the coast of the Pacific Ocean, there is a launching site for paragliding companies that several travellers we met a couple weeks ago (on that bus with no brakes, remember that?) recommended. We indulged, and it was BUCK wild. I´m not sure I´ve ever done anything quite so insane. It´s only like a 15 minute ride, but it´s directly over not only the ocean but also the highway and RIGHT next to buildings. While my guide was a little conservative (you know, we only went about 5 feet from buildings), Jamie said he could have kicked teh side of a building. It is insane and definitely a little scary but so fun. And we´re all alive. A PLUS!
Today we went to ¨downtown¨Lima. It was nothing to speak of. Then we went back to the grocery store and bought more produce/bread. Last night I made a bangin fruit salad that probably would have cost about $50 in the US to buy all the fruit for. I´m really taking advantage of this cheap fruit while I can... only a week more.
Tonight we´re heading to one of the best restaurants in Lima to indulge some more. It´s called Astrid y Gaston and there´s also a location in Santiago that President of Chile Michelle Bachelet appraently frequents. Oh it´s good to be living the fine life after freezing our asses off for several weeks in the Bolivian desert.
Today we went to ¨downtown¨Lima. It was nothing to speak of. Then we went back to the grocery store and bought more produce/bread. Last night I made a bangin fruit salad that probably would have cost about $50 in the US to buy all the fruit for. I´m really taking advantage of this cheap fruit while I can... only a week more.
Tonight we´re heading to one of the best restaurants in Lima to indulge some more. It´s called Astrid y Gaston and there´s also a location in Santiago that President of Chile Michelle Bachelet appraently frequents. Oh it´s good to be living the fine life after freezing our asses off for several weeks in the Bolivian desert.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Mayo much?
Okay CLASSIC Latin American experience I had to share...
Today James and I were buying lunch in the local grocery store called METRO (confusing... no... just normal for Peru). Anyways, I´m filling up a little plastic container with Metro´s salad bar options - very limited by the way - and I begin to investigate the literally 12 or so options for ¨salad dressing.¨A cursory glance at the dressing names and even a couple tastes that I shamefully licked off my finger when no one was looking told me that most were all different colored variations of chili seasoning. Then there were 3 or 4 variations of mayonaise. Then there was some white sauce called ¨garlic sauce.¨I figured... okay, it could be gross but it could be pretty decent also, and I certainly am not up for putting any type of mayonaise or chili sauce on my salad, so I went for it. Salsa de ajo.
I went ahead and had my salad weighed, and went on with my Metro shopping experience. I walked past the prepared food section, gazed for a while, and moved on to the panaderia to buy some bread. I had just made my decision for a delicious looking whole wheat roll when a woman taps me on the back and says something along the lines of.... ¨PERMISO... ESTA ES SALSA DE AJO!!! NO ES MAYONAISA!!! ES DE AJO!¨(Excuse me... that is garlic sauce! Not (our beloved) mayonaise!! It´s garlic!¨ She looked genuinelly concerned and I giggled at the thought that this woman had probably been watching me and following me for the last 3-4 minutes if she was just NOW confronting me. I told her I was aware of my (apparently outrageous) salad dressing selection, and we both moved on with our lives. Except I still giggled. Only in South America would someone be concerned that i DID NOT drench my salad in mayonaise.
Today James and I were buying lunch in the local grocery store called METRO (confusing... no... just normal for Peru). Anyways, I´m filling up a little plastic container with Metro´s salad bar options - very limited by the way - and I begin to investigate the literally 12 or so options for ¨salad dressing.¨A cursory glance at the dressing names and even a couple tastes that I shamefully licked off my finger when no one was looking told me that most were all different colored variations of chili seasoning. Then there were 3 or 4 variations of mayonaise. Then there was some white sauce called ¨garlic sauce.¨I figured... okay, it could be gross but it could be pretty decent also, and I certainly am not up for putting any type of mayonaise or chili sauce on my salad, so I went for it. Salsa de ajo.
I went ahead and had my salad weighed, and went on with my Metro shopping experience. I walked past the prepared food section, gazed for a while, and moved on to the panaderia to buy some bread. I had just made my decision for a delicious looking whole wheat roll when a woman taps me on the back and says something along the lines of.... ¨PERMISO... ESTA ES SALSA DE AJO!!! NO ES MAYONAISA!!! ES DE AJO!¨(Excuse me... that is garlic sauce! Not (our beloved) mayonaise!! It´s garlic!¨ She looked genuinelly concerned and I giggled at the thought that this woman had probably been watching me and following me for the last 3-4 minutes if she was just NOW confronting me. I told her I was aware of my (apparently outrageous) salad dressing selection, and we both moved on with our lives. Except I still giggled. Only in South America would someone be concerned that i DID NOT drench my salad in mayonaise.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
A little ketchup.
Laziness always comes back to kick me in the butt when I try to write blog posts. I find it easier to keep my thoughts straight in list format, so I´ll go with that. Sorry if my thoughts seem to have no sequence or relevance. Here goes....
1. Food.... We discovered early on during our time in Cuzco that the ubiquitous set menu meals found at most restaurants generally tend to be cheap, but also disgusting. After a couple nights, we had explored enough to know where to get the good deals without sacrificing taste. I ate some of the best salads of my life and didn´t really mind that they weren´t really all that Peruvian.
2. Entertainment.....Our hotel room had a TV where we watched a lot of Law and Order in our down time. We also continued our tradition of finding excellent movies to watch on TV including You, Me, and Dupree (I think maybe I already mentioned that but it was so good that it deserves another nod) and Hitch, featuring Will Smith. Reeeal good.
3. Machu Picchu.... just as fucking awesome as you would expect. It´s breathtaking, especially at 6 AM. After a brief and groggy period (we woke up at 4:45) when we were convinced that we would be able to climb (almost entirely) vertically up a mountain to get to MP, we came to our senses, turned back, and shelled out $7 each for the bus. Best decision of our lives; however, despite getting there at 5:30, we got on bus #22 heading up the mountain and there were about 600 people in front of us. Once we arrived, we got in line for limited tickets to climb the coveted ¨Huana Picchu¨(the large peak that is often seen in teh background of pictures of MP). Unfortunately, the 800th ticket was given away to the man directly in front of us in line, so we admitted defeat and walked off to explore, not all that disappointed. I ended up feeling pretty sick that day, so I basically just layed down on the grass and took occasional glances up at the scenery to remind myself of where I was. Jamie did some manly man hikes, one of which was (according to a Peruvian guide) way more badass than that sissy Huana Picchu.
4. Shopping.... I actually wrote a post the other day about shopping and then didn´t have time to finish/post it. When I went back to read it, I realized it was basically one giant rant that made me sound like an angry whiner. Let me just say, the other day we went on a little daytrip to a town outside of Cuzco called Pisac that has a weekly Sunday morning. After about 20 minutes, I thought I was going to ring the necks of just about every overbearing Peruvian salesperson. It is nearly impossible to just look at things in markets here, and for someone who likes to shop in peace without being constantly solicited, Latin America is not the place to come. I was in no mood. Another thing, I know these people may hate their terrible jobs of trying to squeeze money out of obnoxious and often clueless foreigners, but don´t tell me a hat is ¨hecho de mano¨(made by hand) when I´ve seen 20 of the same exact hats at the last 20 vendors and everywhere else in Peru. Puh-lease. My mama didn´t raise no fool.
Also regarding shopping, Jamie is going somewhat buck wild with the Peruvian currency, the nuevo soles. At the Sunday market he bought not one but TWO sweaters - one alpaca and the other baby alpaca. A couple days earlier he also bought not one but TWO hats of identical style but different colors. Who am I to stop him?
5. Lima.... today we flew there. We´d heard some not-so-impressive stuff about it just being kind of a big city with little going on, but it´s not all bad. We´re staying in a section of the city that is right on the Pacific Ocean, and there is an American style mall (meaning, there´s a Hooters) built right into the side of the coast so you can shop for baby alpaca sweaters while looking at the waves come crashing in. It looks like we´ll spend most of our time here walking around (maybe even running a little!) and eating. Luckily, our hostal has a kitchen and there are really nice grocery stores around so hopefully we can save some dinero and cook a little. It had been so long since I had been in a grocery store and I was so excited that I sort of had a Supermarket Sweep-type feeling earlier today. I bought cereal and soy milk and bananas and had an incredibly enjoyable dinner. In addition to eating (if anything else is worth mentioning), we´re also planning on hitting up the movie theaters and doing some parasailing in a couple days. There also seems to be Vegas-style casinos on every block that I´m itching to investigate. I´ll report back.
Four nights in Lima followed by four nights in Santiago and then I´m back in the homeland!
1. Food.... We discovered early on during our time in Cuzco that the ubiquitous set menu meals found at most restaurants generally tend to be cheap, but also disgusting. After a couple nights, we had explored enough to know where to get the good deals without sacrificing taste. I ate some of the best salads of my life and didn´t really mind that they weren´t really all that Peruvian.
2. Entertainment.....Our hotel room had a TV where we watched a lot of Law and Order in our down time. We also continued our tradition of finding excellent movies to watch on TV including You, Me, and Dupree (I think maybe I already mentioned that but it was so good that it deserves another nod) and Hitch, featuring Will Smith. Reeeal good.
3. Machu Picchu.... just as fucking awesome as you would expect. It´s breathtaking, especially at 6 AM. After a brief and groggy period (we woke up at 4:45) when we were convinced that we would be able to climb (almost entirely) vertically up a mountain to get to MP, we came to our senses, turned back, and shelled out $7 each for the bus. Best decision of our lives; however, despite getting there at 5:30, we got on bus #22 heading up the mountain and there were about 600 people in front of us. Once we arrived, we got in line for limited tickets to climb the coveted ¨Huana Picchu¨(the large peak that is often seen in teh background of pictures of MP). Unfortunately, the 800th ticket was given away to the man directly in front of us in line, so we admitted defeat and walked off to explore, not all that disappointed. I ended up feeling pretty sick that day, so I basically just layed down on the grass and took occasional glances up at the scenery to remind myself of where I was. Jamie did some manly man hikes, one of which was (according to a Peruvian guide) way more badass than that sissy Huana Picchu.
4. Shopping.... I actually wrote a post the other day about shopping and then didn´t have time to finish/post it. When I went back to read it, I realized it was basically one giant rant that made me sound like an angry whiner. Let me just say, the other day we went on a little daytrip to a town outside of Cuzco called Pisac that has a weekly Sunday morning. After about 20 minutes, I thought I was going to ring the necks of just about every overbearing Peruvian salesperson. It is nearly impossible to just look at things in markets here, and for someone who likes to shop in peace without being constantly solicited, Latin America is not the place to come. I was in no mood. Another thing, I know these people may hate their terrible jobs of trying to squeeze money out of obnoxious and often clueless foreigners, but don´t tell me a hat is ¨hecho de mano¨(made by hand) when I´ve seen 20 of the same exact hats at the last 20 vendors and everywhere else in Peru. Puh-lease. My mama didn´t raise no fool.
Also regarding shopping, Jamie is going somewhat buck wild with the Peruvian currency, the nuevo soles. At the Sunday market he bought not one but TWO sweaters - one alpaca and the other baby alpaca. A couple days earlier he also bought not one but TWO hats of identical style but different colors. Who am I to stop him?
5. Lima.... today we flew there. We´d heard some not-so-impressive stuff about it just being kind of a big city with little going on, but it´s not all bad. We´re staying in a section of the city that is right on the Pacific Ocean, and there is an American style mall (meaning, there´s a Hooters) built right into the side of the coast so you can shop for baby alpaca sweaters while looking at the waves come crashing in. It looks like we´ll spend most of our time here walking around (maybe even running a little!) and eating. Luckily, our hostal has a kitchen and there are really nice grocery stores around so hopefully we can save some dinero and cook a little. It had been so long since I had been in a grocery store and I was so excited that I sort of had a Supermarket Sweep-type feeling earlier today. I bought cereal and soy milk and bananas and had an incredibly enjoyable dinner. In addition to eating (if anything else is worth mentioning), we´re also planning on hitting up the movie theaters and doing some parasailing in a couple days. There also seems to be Vegas-style casinos on every block that I´m itching to investigate. I´ll report back.
Four nights in Lima followed by four nights in Santiago and then I´m back in the homeland!
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Breathing problems in The Paz, Bad Pizza at Titicaca, and Welcome to Peru.
Hello PERU!! We´ve been in Cuzco for a couple days now.... we were part of the few who managed to make it through the massive roadblocks that exist on every road leading into Cuzco right now. Lucky us. The downside is that we´ve had to adjust our plans a little (what else is new) and book some flights. Expensive flights. Lame.
Before I talk about Cuzco though, I realize I haven´t updated in quite a while longer than I thought. La Paz was nice and busy and pretty. We watched some excellent movies in our hotel room to occupy the prime time hours (Georgia Rule featuring Lindsay Lohan. I liked it. My Best Friend´s Wedding. Never seen it before which was weird but I´m related to Dave ¨Julia Robert´s second husband¨Munro so I guess I´m inclined to say it was pretty good. Also, to top it off... NORBIT. If you have not seen this film masterpiece there is no reason to wait. Netflix your heart away and Eddy Murphy will not disappoint.) Anyways, it was hard to breathe in La Paz with it being at such a high elevation and with so much pollution due to really outdated automobiles. We had to leave.
On to..... Copacabana and Lake Titicaca. Hmm... We spent 1.5 hours on a boat heading to the island where we (unknowingly) had to climb quite a steep mountain of stairs with our souvenir-heavy backpacks. Trecherous. Once arriving at our hotel, we had a cold room but a great view. That night, perhaps the worst food decision of our lives..... do NOT order pizza in South America unless it comes highly recommended. We knew better and still had to suffer the consequences. After a beautious hike the next day, it was time to leave. We had originally thought of staying another night, but after feeling like we were being scammed everytime we turned around (ohhh... you want to step off the boat? 5 bolivianos. Oh you want to step on that grass? 15 bolivianos) that desire to stay faded away.
Back to Copacabana where we enjoyed a nice dinner (thanks mom and dad!) with an excellent salad bar with a sassy waitor. Our room was right on the ¨beach¨ where we thought about partaking in a paddle boat adventure but then the sun went down too fast. We sort of watched Bridget Jones Diary, which I re-realized I strongly dislike.
The next day, after a 10 hour bus ride, we arrived here in Cuzco. It´s really beautiful... lots of pretty squares and cobblestone streets. It´s also fulll of gringos to an extent we have yet to witness. In the past, we saw mainly travellers from Australia, the UK, and Israel. So, it came as quite a surprise (good or not) to hear so much American style english. Tour groups are everywhere and we met a Political Science professor from Princeton last night at our restaurant and then immediately went to an internet cafe so Jamie could stalk him. Couldn´t find anything on him so he´s either... 1) not famous or 2) a liar. Who knows. The bright side is that after spending a horrendous night in one hostal where we were subjected to guitar music and horrendous singing from a nearby bar while we were trying to sleep, we´ve found a great place. There´s an old man who has a serious bathroom-hogging problem which does not correspond well with my constant need to pee, but we have a TV again!! In the downtime, we´ve been enjoying a lot of those reality murder mystery shows (that give me nightmares), Law and Order (that also gives me nightmares), and YOU ME AND DUPREE. GO SEE IT. You won´t be sorry.
Now, now... don´t get the impression that all we do is sit in the hostal and watch TV. We´ve been doing a lot of walkign around Cuzco and tomorrow we leave for a 3 night trip to some nearby towns during which we will visit MACHU PICCHU. We´re planning on getting there at 5 AM, so if all goes according to plan, ít should be fun. If all does not go according to plan, then it will just be normal South America.
Before I talk about Cuzco though, I realize I haven´t updated in quite a while longer than I thought. La Paz was nice and busy and pretty. We watched some excellent movies in our hotel room to occupy the prime time hours (Georgia Rule featuring Lindsay Lohan. I liked it. My Best Friend´s Wedding. Never seen it before which was weird but I´m related to Dave ¨Julia Robert´s second husband¨Munro so I guess I´m inclined to say it was pretty good. Also, to top it off... NORBIT. If you have not seen this film masterpiece there is no reason to wait. Netflix your heart away and Eddy Murphy will not disappoint.) Anyways, it was hard to breathe in La Paz with it being at such a high elevation and with so much pollution due to really outdated automobiles. We had to leave.
On to..... Copacabana and Lake Titicaca. Hmm... We spent 1.5 hours on a boat heading to the island where we (unknowingly) had to climb quite a steep mountain of stairs with our souvenir-heavy backpacks. Trecherous. Once arriving at our hotel, we had a cold room but a great view. That night, perhaps the worst food decision of our lives..... do NOT order pizza in South America unless it comes highly recommended. We knew better and still had to suffer the consequences. After a beautious hike the next day, it was time to leave. We had originally thought of staying another night, but after feeling like we were being scammed everytime we turned around (ohhh... you want to step off the boat? 5 bolivianos. Oh you want to step on that grass? 15 bolivianos) that desire to stay faded away.
Back to Copacabana where we enjoyed a nice dinner (thanks mom and dad!) with an excellent salad bar with a sassy waitor. Our room was right on the ¨beach¨ where we thought about partaking in a paddle boat adventure but then the sun went down too fast. We sort of watched Bridget Jones Diary, which I re-realized I strongly dislike.
The next day, after a 10 hour bus ride, we arrived here in Cuzco. It´s really beautiful... lots of pretty squares and cobblestone streets. It´s also fulll of gringos to an extent we have yet to witness. In the past, we saw mainly travellers from Australia, the UK, and Israel. So, it came as quite a surprise (good or not) to hear so much American style english. Tour groups are everywhere and we met a Political Science professor from Princeton last night at our restaurant and then immediately went to an internet cafe so Jamie could stalk him. Couldn´t find anything on him so he´s either... 1) not famous or 2) a liar. Who knows. The bright side is that after spending a horrendous night in one hostal where we were subjected to guitar music and horrendous singing from a nearby bar while we were trying to sleep, we´ve found a great place. There´s an old man who has a serious bathroom-hogging problem which does not correspond well with my constant need to pee, but we have a TV again!! In the downtime, we´ve been enjoying a lot of those reality murder mystery shows (that give me nightmares), Law and Order (that also gives me nightmares), and YOU ME AND DUPREE. GO SEE IT. You won´t be sorry.
Now, now... don´t get the impression that all we do is sit in the hostal and watch TV. We´ve been doing a lot of walkign around Cuzco and tomorrow we leave for a 3 night trip to some nearby towns during which we will visit MACHU PICCHU. We´re planning on getting there at 5 AM, so if all goes according to plan, ít should be fun. If all does not go according to plan, then it will just be normal South America.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Peachy.
A new color for a new day. I´m hungry.
Wishing the best to all my fellow DC red-line travellers. Hope everyone is safe!
Wishing the best to all my fellow DC red-line travellers. Hope everyone is safe!
Monday, June 22, 2009
There is no such thing as a ¨plan¨ in South America.
We´re slowly learning. Today, we took a 45 minute flight from Sucre to La Paz. Unfortunately, we had to settle for 1st class since those were the only tickets left.... a real bummer... sort of wish it had been a transcontinental flight when I saw how much butt space I had. Upon arrival, we had planned to book tickets to go immediately to Rurrenabaque, the Bolivian Amazon. We had heard that flights to Rurrenabaque were somewhat unreliable in terms of whether they would leave or not becasue the ¨runway¨in the jungle is made of grass. Still, we were hoping to persevere and go ahead with the plan. Ha, the plan... we were such amateurs.
Upon arriving at the ticket counter we talked to a Amazonia Airline worker who told us that we would not be able to leave today but MAYBE tomorrow. She provided no further information (whch is sort of the trend on this continent... people aren´t going to tell you shit unless you ask direct and very specific questions. Even then, it´s certainly not a guarantee that their information is the truth, and we often just don´t even know what to ask.Very frustrating.) Anyways, after chatting with a lovely German couple who had been bumped for take-off several times (and who exchanged several ¨this is shiza¨´s between each other as they were receiving little help from the airline), we decided that we would forgoe the jungle trip. If we ever did make it there, flights back are just as uncertain and we really didn´t want to throw off the rest of our trip.
Currently, we´re in a hotel in La Paz and planning to spend a couple days here. Jamie´s back in the room resting after yakking up some street-cake he foolishly consumed last night. Once he´s better, we´re really looking forward to rocking this city... there are tons of actually cool sounding museums (this coming me, a self-proclaimed philistine), a Witches Market, and lots of streets to explore. Our cab ride from the airport into the heart of the city was amazing as the main highway is basically a slow decent as it circles the city. First thoughts... I sort of felt like I was back in India. It is pretty wild and crowded here and my words can barely describe the juxtoposition of the beautiful distant mountains with the lower-income neighborhoods that line the higher altitude parts of the city above the center. Can´t wait to see more. And eat, ofcourse.
Upon arriving at the ticket counter we talked to a Amazonia Airline worker who told us that we would not be able to leave today but MAYBE tomorrow. She provided no further information (whch is sort of the trend on this continent... people aren´t going to tell you shit unless you ask direct and very specific questions. Even then, it´s certainly not a guarantee that their information is the truth, and we often just don´t even know what to ask.Very frustrating.) Anyways, after chatting with a lovely German couple who had been bumped for take-off several times (and who exchanged several ¨this is shiza¨´s between each other as they were receiving little help from the airline), we decided that we would forgoe the jungle trip. If we ever did make it there, flights back are just as uncertain and we really didn´t want to throw off the rest of our trip.
Currently, we´re in a hotel in La Paz and planning to spend a couple days here. Jamie´s back in the room resting after yakking up some street-cake he foolishly consumed last night. Once he´s better, we´re really looking forward to rocking this city... there are tons of actually cool sounding museums (this coming me, a self-proclaimed philistine), a Witches Market, and lots of streets to explore. Our cab ride from the airport into the heart of the city was amazing as the main highway is basically a slow decent as it circles the city. First thoughts... I sort of felt like I was back in India. It is pretty wild and crowded here and my words can barely describe the juxtoposition of the beautiful distant mountains with the lower-income neighborhoods that line the higher altitude parts of the city above the center. Can´t wait to see more. And eat, ofcourse.
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